In 2000, N.Y.U. graduate assistants organized and voted to have an arm of the UAW represent them in negotiations with university administration, in 2002 they became the first group to have a signed contract, but by 2004 the NLRB ruled in a case brought by Brown University that G.A.?s, T.A.?s, and other student workers were students before they could ever be considered employees. That ruling led to N.Y.U.?s president to decide in 2005 that he would no longer recognize or bargain with the Graduate Assistants union. Since 2005, the UAW has been fighting for recognition, and recently that fight has yielded results: N.Y.U. has agreed to let its graduate students vote on whether or not they would like the UAW to represent them and agreed to a neutrality agreement in exchange for the UAW dropping a case it had pending before the NLRB. Additionally, graduate research assistants in the ?hard sciences? will be excluded from the bargaining unit.
See "With New Agreement, N.Y.U. Would Again Recognize Graduate Assistants? Union", Steven Greenhouse & Ariel Kaminer, The New York Times, November 26, 2013